Robert Louis Stevenson 
Inland Voyage 
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but playing a poor hand well."

An Inland Voyage is Robert Louis Stevenson’s account of a trip that he once made in the area between Belgium and Northern France when he was 26 years old. Being accompanied by his friend and countryman Walter Grindlay Simpson, Stevenson travelled down the Oise River to finally reach close to the Seine River in France. Taking the names of Arethusa and Cigarette, the two friends mostly used canoes as their main means of transportation as long as they were not obliged to travel by rail. The book is divided into more than twenty chapters that minutely delineate the friends’ itinerary. Despite the spread of factories and heavy industries in the area, the book paints the simplicity and spontaneity of 19th-century European life. Indeed, the book speaks about the boys’ encounter with welcoming and amiable locals who are often very pleased to receive visitors from other parts of the world. Since the narrative gives a refreshing description of the region, its geographical characteristics and its different places of interest, namely its old castles and attractive landscapes, it has become a guidebook for travelers who wish to visit the area and relive the itinerary made by Stevenson and his companion.